We did it; well kind of…for the most part we made it to and through the first race of the 2018 Monster Energy Supercross Series. It is always week(end) filled with excitement, adrenaline, and emotions that I believe rivals any other sporting event I have ever been apart of as both a fan and later on life the industry side.
With it being almost impossible to encapsulate what goes on through an entire A1 weekend, I decide to write a timeline piece from when I landed at John Wayne Airport in Orange County until I shut the semi doors after the race.
Before I get into the fun, I really wanted to give a huge thank you to everyone that stopped by the rig to hang out this weekend…especially all the Canadians. I really love bench racing when I can and it’s great to see families coming down to enjoy the sport together and to get away from what I am told is a very cold winter so far.
|| Thursday January 4, 2018 ||
3:25pm – To start my weekend of, I landed in Orange County to a baggage claim without the two VERY import bags I had pack. Thankfully Southwest helped me find them and I didn’t have to go into full panic mood replacing the items for the race in the bag on Friday.
4:00pm – I jumped in my shuttle to the stadium and took that time to answer the 28 emails I had got in the hour and half I was on the plane. Thankfully they were all good news or “delivery” notifications for things I was waiting on.
5:00pm – After arriving at the stadium, I begin my long trek from the Angel’s hat at the front to the pit where our semi was parked. I cracked the semi doors to find the full evening of work ahead of me that included goggle prep, manikin construction, and going through parts for a weekend inventory count.
7:00pm – Helmets and gear are ready, now it was time to pack my emergency kit of extra helmet screws and boot clips to keep in truck for the year. I also packed up a the Houston gear into bags to keep ready to go moving forward.
7:30pm – The nicest person in moto (Karen from N-Style) dropped off my Powerlift stands.
8:00pm – We finally got parked and there is a ton of construction going on in the stadium parking lot that it made it very difficult for the Feld staff to get everyone parked. But Chris and his crew were awesome and got us in.
10:00pm – Between prep, phone calls, and emails…my night was flying by…so I started to prep what I could to be best ready for tomorrow and cleaned up the mess we had made from unboxing items all night.
1:00am – Bedtime, with so much to do the first couple nights, I always stay at the track in the truck, it also me to hammer out as much as I can throughout the day into the night and not waste a single second in that AWFUL Southern California traffic.
|| Friday January 5, 2018 ||
7:00am – After not much sleep, it was time to get up and set the rig up so the mechanics could be ready to go for the day and just concentrate on getting the bikes dialed in and brought to both tech and sound tests to be ready for the Saturday program.
7:30am – I forgot how much setting up a canopy SUCKS, I am definitely lucky to have my mechanics Drizzy (Derrick Sorensen) and Jelly (Eric Angelski) who help get all this stuff done along with the guys from Rockwell who are always willing to help make my day a little easier.
9:00am – Justified Cultures came to drop off the lockers they made us as well as help prep for Saturday, it’s nice having sponsors, but a lot of the people I work with like Justified are more like my partners. They invest as much as I do to not only push their brand, but improve the team every weekend.
11:00am – Jeff from Arai showed up with his media crew to do some video with our guys. This is our first year working with Arai, so it was so cool to finally meet Jeff face to face and so far they have spoiled us with the amount of support they provide to the team.
12:00pm – Taylor and the Rockwell Watches trucks showed and they helped us get the set up complete, showing some of the new guys in the crew the ropes.
12:30pm – The FXR boys rolled up to drop some stuff off and check stuff out.
1:20pm – BJ (Bradley Lionnet’s mechanic) showed up to bust my balls about whatever he could think of as the day went on. He did a few last minute things to the bike and dropped off some parts, so I let it slide.
3:00pm – We had to go to the Nuclear Blast Records office to pick up some last minute parts I had shipped there as well as some Subrosa BMX display bikes and our media equipment from their production company to run our music playlist and sponsor commercials in our activation tent through the day on Saturday.
5:00pm – With the day winding down and most people heading for dinner, I had to skip our team dinner because my mechanics had more work to do and I was having to wait on delivery of both TV and a snowmobile, yes a snowmobile.
7:00pm – Got a call that the TV wasn’t coming until the morning…I was a little stressed about that (it eventually did come).
8:45pm – I got the call my snowmobile was at the gate, but security wouldn’t let them in…so I headed out to take care of that.
10:00pm – Getting the snowmobile in the pits, off the trailer, and up top in our semi for the night was a little bit of a process…but thankfully I got it done and after I was ready for dinner.
10:30pm – Lucky for me Taylor and Shawn called us with the news that they ordered us pizza to go from the team dinner, but dinner festivities rendered them unable to drive. So Drizzy went and picked it up. It was GOOD pizza!
11:30pm – The guys had a little more bike prep to do so I cleaned up what I could and then turn in for the night.
|| RACE DAY ||
7:30am – It was finally race day and we cracked the semi doors just before 8:00am and it was full throttle from there.
8:30am – After rolling the bike out and getting the race pit set, it was time to finish setting up the 20×20 activation tent we have. This weekend we had: two TVs, a big sound system, BMX bikes on display, a snowmobile, prizes, displays, models to take pictures with, and an autograph session with all the guys.
9:30am – The riders and other crew started showing up. This is also around the time I figure out how many VIPs and passes the team needs to accommodate for and then I send someone to show office to see what’s available.
10:30am – Track walk this year was nice…I know a lot of people are bummed about the track walk being a little more exclusive than years past. But I like my riders can walk the track and concentrate on the task at hand without having what seemed at times 500 extra people there.
11:00am – After the riders meeting, it’s really just about getting ready to go. I go to AMA and grab day sheets so I can highlight who is in what session and make sure they and their mechanic are aware of times. We grab our radios and the guys get geared up.
11:45am – Almost every sponsor we have has stopped by this point, it is so nice to finally hang out in person with the people you spend the majority of your life on the phone with.
12:30am – Once any last minute adjustments are done, we head down the tunnel and it’s on!
2:00pm – This year it’s a little more challenging because we can at times have 3 guys in 3 different session making it hard to get back up and relay any info we may have for next session.
4:00pm – Pits are packed, guys do a signing and finish the last qualifying session.
5:30pm – Qualifying is done, with all three guys headed to the night show it’s time to wind down and gets some dinner catered by Jim from 1455 American Grill. The pits are still packed at this time so I usually will hang out near the crowds and bench race or answer any question they may have about any sponsors.
6:00pm – We always pack up what we can for 10-20 minutes before we head down for opening ceremonies and 250 heats.
7:07pm – It’s go time, the opening ceremonies are over and it’s time to drop the gate.
10:00pm – The 250 main checkers have flown and we get out of A1 with a Top 20, we are pretty stoked but having the whole team racing for points is the goal.
10:55pm – We debrief…about what we need to get ordered or done before the truck heads to Houston on Tuesday.
11:00am – The night is done, but the work isn’t over…we have about a hour to two hours of clean up ahead of us depending on crew size.
12:00am – I finished off my night with a pretty long meeting with Rich and Tim of Rockwell then it was time to try and get some sleep for my travel day on Sunday.
Houston, you’re NEXT so make sure you stop by the ROCKWELL RACING pits to check out all our new gear, bikes, and parts this weekend when the 2018 Monster Energy Supercross series rolls into the NRG Stadium.
Follow the riders on Instagram: AJ Catanzaro (@ajcatanzaro), Ryan Breece (@ryanbreece92), and Bradley Lionnet (@bradlionnet321) for an inside look at the team as they take on the 2018 season.
You can check us out on Instagram and Twitter (@ROCKWELLRACING), and of course find them on Facebook.